2015

After reading “What My MPP Did for Me and Can Do for You” in the PA Times, we caught up with the author, public policy alumna Mobola Owolabi, MS ’14, to ask her about her experience as a student here at Drexel.

A new initiative from Drexel University’s Lindy Center for Civic Engagement and the College of Arts and Sciences will address this issue through a service called UConnect, which will train members of the Drexel community to act as navigators, helping local residents get connected with a range of services and opportunities.

Due to his past involvement with another survey of the night sky, Drexel’s Gordon Richards will take a look out of our galaxy with the help of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which is capable of mapping the entire night sky every three days.

Drexel University and Michelin North America have announced the winner of the Connected Mobility Challenge, a six-week competition to identify innovative solutions with the potential to impact people and their mobility and change the transportation industry.

Amidst a flurry of protests across the country – from the University of Pennsylvania to Princeton University and the University of Kentucky – by students calling for the renaming of campus buildings and programs due to racial concerns, the president of the University of Maryland has recommended that the University’s football stadium be renamed. It was research by a Drexel professor that helped to inform that decision.

Political Science major Elgin Ford spent part of his summer in Dublin, Ireland, learning about Irish politics and culture and touring some seriously beautiful countryside. We sat down with Elgin to hear all about his summer term on the Emerald Isle.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Erin Graham, PhD, recently published in The Washington Post’s popular blog The Monkey Cage, discussing UN funding rules and pushing back against the complaints from Congress that America pays too much and the UN system is wasteful.

It’s that time of year again! The time when your stress levels go through the roof as you shop, cook, wrap, decorate, travel and party-plan yourself into a tizzy while trying to create the perfect holiday season. Drexel experts have identified some of the top stress-inducing holiday nightmares and offer some helpful tips for avoiding them this year.

Terry Gross is currently celebrating 40 years as the award-winning host of National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air,” which boasts nearly 5 million listeners each week across more than 450 NPR stations. The show also has a massively popular podcast.

Gross is widely considered one of the country’s leading and most important interviewers, but earlier this month, the legendary interviewer became the interviewee.

A survey conducted by Drexel University professor and director of the Center for Science, Technology and Society, Kelly Joyce, PhD, reveals some important information regarding the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ).

Women with apple-shaped bodies – those who store more of their fat in their trunk and abdominal regions – may be at particular risk for the development of eating episodes during which they experience a sense of “loss of control,” according to a new study from Drexel University. The study also found that women with greater fat stores in their midsections reported being less satisfied with their bodies, which may contribute to loss-of-control eating.

Researchers from the A.J. Drexel Institute for Energy and the Environment issued a 97-page report to the City of Philadelphia that plots a detailed course for how the city can reduce its emission of greenhouse gasses—with the goal of an 80 percent reduction by the year 2050. Among its suggestions are retrofitting hospitals, grocery stores, schools and retail stores with better windows and insulation; drawing electricity from low-carbon sources like nuclear, wind and solar power; and encouraging the use of electric vehicles, public transportation, walking and cycling.

Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel will spend the next three years expanding the successful pre-arrest diversion program in the School District of Philadelphia for students with no histories of juvenile justice involvement. He will continue his work on the program as the first Diana A. Millner Youth Justice Fellow at the Stoneleigh Foundation.

After 14 years of leadership, Barbara Hoekje, PhD, has decided to step down as director of Drexel's English Language Center (ELC). Tobie Hoffman, previously the ELC's associate director for University and Intensive programs, has been appointed as the new director.

Rogelio Miñana, PhD, joins us as head of the new Department of Global Studies and Modern Languages. Originally from Spain, Miñana has a deeply rooted affection for Paella, speaks several languages, and is excited to further infuse culture and language into the CoAS curriculum.

Was it an asteroid impact on Earth 66 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs? Or the eruption of volcanoes in India for hundreds of thousands of years? For decades, paleontologists and geologists have debated the role these two global events played in the last mass extinction.

In Pope Francis’ nearly 200-page climate change encyclical, Laudato SI, published earlier this year, he explicitly calls for a “dialogue with all people about our common home.” A group of leading social scientists provide a scholarly foundation for that dialogue in a special series of commentaries published online this week in Nature Climate Change.

A new study co-authored by scientists at Drexel University, published in the most recent issue of Biological Conservation, reveals the devastating impact of illegal logging on bird communities in the understory layer of Ghana’s Upper Guinea rain forests, one of the world's 25 “biodiversity hotspots” where the most biologically rich ecosystems are most threatened.

Drexel University announced a new collaboration with Michelin North America to help find and develop new technologies that have the potential to impact people and their mobility, and change the transportation industry.

According to the new book “Climate Change and Society: Sociological Perspectives,” engaging the social – and not just natural – sciences in the climate conversation is essential for effecting large-scale change.Edited by environmental sociologists Robert J. Brulle, PhD,a professor in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences, and Riley E. Dunlap, a professor at Oklahoma State University, the book breaks new ground by presenting climate change as a thoroughly social phenomenon, embedded in behaviors, institutions and cultural practices.

Myrna Shure, PhD, professor emeritus, psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, has been selected as the co-recipient of the Society of Counseling Psychology - Prevention Section, American Psychological Association, 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award, Toronto, August 7, 2015.

Arthur M. Nezu, Ph.D., D.H.L. (Hon.), ABPP, Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, received the Florence Halpern Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Clinical Psychology from the Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12 of the American Psychological Association) at the recent 2015 APA convention.

Hallie Espel was awarded an International Conference Travel Grant by the American Psychological Association, to offset costs of attending the Annual Meeting of the Eating Disorders Research Society in Taormina, Italy.

More than 8 out of 10 people surveyed online admitted to sexting in the prior year, according to a new study from Drexel University’s Women’s Health Psychology Lab. The researchers also found that increased levels of sexting were associated with greater sexual satisfaction, especially for those in a relationship.

Pope Francis – and an estimated 1.5 million people – will descend upon the city of Philadelphia in late September as the capstone to the weeklong, international World Meeting of Families event,

during which the Pope will deliver a public mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. From concerns about security measures to transportation, anxiety is already on the rise among Philadelphians regarding how the city will handle the influx of tourists expected to double the city’s population. Drexel University experts are available to comment on a range of issues related to the visit including safety, public health, environmental impact, infrastructure preparedness and tourism. Experts also are able to weigh in about what this once-in-a-lifetime event – and the Pope’s progressive views – mean for the Catholic church.

The bushmeat market in the city of Malabo is bustling—more so today than it was nearly two decades ago, when Gail Hearn, PhD, began what is now one of the region’s longest continuously running studies of commercial hunting activity. Hearn’s team has now published its comprehensive results of 13 years of daily monitoring bushmeat market activity.

When it comes to choosing the path to your career, Lloyd Ackert firmly believes in exploration. As a young man, he headed to the University of Minnesota with the intention of studying English. That changed.

Drexel University Professor of Paleontology and Geology Kenneth Lacovara shared this view with Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission, as relayed in Stern’s editorial (with Science editor Marcia McNutt) published in Science

Ron Bishop, professor and head of the Department of Communication, recently released a book showcasing how the internment of people of Japanese descent, more than 60 percent American citizens, was covered by local newspapers during World War Two.

The English and Philosophy Department is pleased to announce an MA in Publishing, with a newly designed curriculum including exciting courses and a broad range of faculty, all professionals in their field.

A new Drexel study shows underground species of army ants are much less tolerant of high temperatures than their aboveground relatives—and that could mean climate change models lack a key element of how animal physiology could affect responses to changing environments.

Two STS students were honored at Drexel's 2015 Graduate Student Day. Mel Jeske received a 2015 Research Excellence Award and Britt Salen was recognized as Highly Commended in the 2015 Research Award Competition.

As freshmen in a war literature English course discovered, Drexel has a lot more in common with one of the greatest war novels of all time, and the most destructive bombing in World War II, than you would think.

A team led by environmental engineers from Drexel University are the first independent researchers to take a closer look at the air quality effects of natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania. The group used a mobile air quality monitoring vehicle to survey regional air quality and pollutant emissions at 13 sites including wells, drilling rigs, compressor stations and processing areas. Their work establishes baseline measurements for this relatively new area of extraction.

Robyn Smith, physics senior, was recognized with the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Leadership and Service for Graduating Seniors for her outstanding leadership and service to Drexel's campus life and the surrounding community while maintaining academic excellence.

In Syria, Mahmoud Hallak helped coordinate protests against the Bashar al-Assad government, lost his father to government forces, and was wounded by a grenade during a demonstration. Now the Drexel freshman is sharing his story to help paint a clear picture of what is going on in his home country.

It’s actually not complicated at all. The reason most smartphone diet apps fail has nothing to do with the diet, and little to do with the app. A team of Drexel researchers is working on a solution to the real problem: getting people to stick to their diets.

It’s been roughly a century since we were introduced to automobiles. But, as Americans buy fewer cars, drive less and get fewer licenses as each year goes by, it’s impossible not to wonder: has America passed its driving peak?

When an enormous asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago, a planet-wide quake shook the magma plumbing of a massive, active volcano—radically changing the style of volcanic eruption in one of the planet’s rarest, largest lava flows. This is the sequence of events supported by a new study published last week in the Geological Society of America Bulletin by a team of scientists, including Drexel University volcanologist Loÿc Vanderkluysen and led by geologists at UC Berkeley.

Kathleen Volk Miller delivered the Winter English Faculty Research Seminar address. Her talk,“The Lit Mag: Get Published in Them; Teach from Them—Here’s How and Why,” shared her 20 years of experience in the literary magazine industry.

Phillip Ayoub, PhD, joins us from Florence where he was the Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow at the European Institute. In this Q&A, Ayoub talks about the course that ultimately changed his career path, and the caffeinated venture that funded his graduate degree.

Dr. Evan Forman along with his team from the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Science, the College of Engineering and the Westphal College of Media Arts and Design are winners of a 2015 Drexel Ventures Innovation Fund Award for their project, DietAlert.

When people rank the most desirable places to work, Facebook is consistently positioned at the top of the list. Hundreds of thousands apply each year and yet, many others count themselves out before they even reach the point of submitting an application.

As the United Nations celebrates its 70th anniversary, DrexelNow checked in with Ambassador (Ret.) Joseph M. Torsella, distinguished visiting fellow in the Center for Public Policy in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences, who formerly servedas the U.S. Representative to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform. From 2011-2014, he was responsible for leading efforts to make the U.N. a more efficient, accountable, respected and effective organization. On Wednesday, May 13, Torsella will give a public discussion at Drexel on “The U.S., the U.N. and U.N. Reform: Why its So Hard...and So Important.” The event will take place from 1:30 – 3 p.m. in the Bossone Research Enterprise Center’s Mitchell Auditorium (32nd and Market Streets, Philadelphia).

Miriam Kotzen has been teaching at Drexel for 45 years. She's written a history of the University, led departments and creating groundbreaking online literary magazines. But what does she feel is her greatest legacy?

The second annual MAAGC workshop will take place Friday and Saturday, April 24-25, 2015, in the Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building (PISB) at Drexel University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. MAAGC aims to bring together senior researchers and junior mathematicians from the region to exchange ideas and forge collaborations in algebraic geometry and algebraic combinatorics.

Drexel faculty in the STEM fields are invited to submit their research for consideration at Start Talking Science 2015, a free public event where researchers present non-technical posters to local students and the community in order to make STEM research more accessible.

On a beautiful spring day, it’s not unusual for college students to ask to hold class outside. But this spring term, Ted Daeschler’s GEO 103 class, “Intro to Field Methods in Earth Science,” is all outdoors, all the time.

Students, faculty and staff from Drexel University will help make the fifth anniversary of the Philadelphia Science Festival one of the biggest citywide celebrations to date. More than 200 regional partner organizations from museums to cultural centers and educational institutions will present over 100 events across the city during the nine-day celebration intended to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Aphasia, an impairment of language that often happens after stroke or other brain injury, affects about 1 in 250 people, and can make it difficult to return to work and to maintain social relationships. A new study published in the journal Nature Communications provides a detailed brain map of language impairments in aphasia following stroke.

A group of remarkably well-preserved fossils that demonstrate the evolutionary transition from finned to limbed animals—and that made world headlines—is heading back to Canada, but not before the fossils get a proper send-off.

A new study published this week in the journal PLOS ONE explores the scope of malaria parasite diversity in southeast African birds, and provides insight into how lifestyle characteristics of birds can influence their association with different parasite genera.

On Thursday, April 30 from 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m., Taiwanese-American artist Candy Chang will speak on “Better Cities: Transforming Public Spaces Through Art & Design” at Drexel University’s Mandell Theater (33rd and Chestnut Streets) as the fifth lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences' annual Distinguished Lecture Series.

In the year 1990, Madonna's "Vogue" topped the Billboard charts, "The Simpsons" and the Internet were still in their infancy, the Hubble Space Telescope launched into orbit, and Drexel President Richard Breslin announced that the College of Sciences and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences would merge to become one — the College of Arts and Sciences.

Drexel professor John Kounios has co-authored a new book about the science of "aha moments." It’s the first book about creativity that tells a complete and faithful story of the neuroscience written by the actual scientists who made the discoveries.

In a public discussion, entitled “Renewing the American “We”: What We Owe James Wilson,” Ambassador Joseph M. Torsella (Ret.), distinguished visiting fellow in the Center for Public Policy in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences, will share his thoughts on how we can – and why we must – renew our sense of American community in polarized times and what “forgotten founder” and Pennsylvania native James Wilson has to say about our current situation. The event will take place at the National Constitution Center’s Kirby Auditorium (525 Arch St., Philadelphia) on Wednesday, April 1 at 6:30 p.m.

"Santiago, Chile: What jumps to mind is the stunning sight of a vibrant city skyline with the backdrop of majestic mountains in a beautiful South American country. Now, imagine it in 1973. Do we know what it looked like?

Many of us who aren’t history buffs don’t, but the scene is less than inviting. It was a war zone."

The Maryanoff Freshman Summer Research Program provides support for students for a period of up to ten (10) weeks to do research in chemistry at Drexel University. The stipend is $4000. Please note, summer lodging will be provided this year. This program is open to all Drexel students who are freshmen in the academic year 2014-2015 and who are enrolled in the following majors: Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Geosciences, Mathematics, Nutrition Science, Physics, Psychology and Science (undecided). After the completion of the research, the students are each required to make a 10-minute power point presentation (date to be determined) to the donors, Drs. Bruce and Cynthia Maryanoff.

A group of researchers at Drexel University, headed up by Michael Lowe, PhD, a clinical psychologist who studies the psychobiology of eating and weight regulation and a professor of psychology in Drexel’s College of Arts and Sciences, suggests that actual elevations in body mass during childhood may play a much bigger role in the development of disordered eating than previously thought.

Miller reports on his project, “Engineers as Servant-Leaders of the Old South: The Southern Military Schools and the Foundation of the New South” for the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine where he was a research fellow for 2014-2015.

While presenting his research at the #BlackLivesMatter panel discussion on race and police violence Friday night, Drexel Professor André Carrington, PhD, posed a series of rhetorical, sobering questions.

Actress Julianne Moore won an Oscar for her starring role in the drama "Still Alice" at the 87th Academy Awards last night, but did the movie accurately depict early-onset dementia? Actor Eddie Redmayne also received one of the coveted gold statues, but was his portrayal of Stephen Hawking's neurological disorder scientifically defensible in the biopic "The Theory of Everything"?

The Drexel Storylab, a new initiative in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of English & Philosophy, aims to help writers of all levels jumpstart the creative process by working with established writers and looking for inspiration in unlikely places.

During Black History Month, a roundtable discussion will be held at Drexel University on Friday, Feb. 20 from 6 – 8 p.m. to examine police violence against African Americans, the criminal justice system and community responses. The event will be held in Drexel'sMacAlister Hall, 2019-2020 (3250 Chestnut St., Philadelphia). It is sponsored by Drexel’s Office of Equality and Diversity.

For many, theoretical mathematics might as well be fiction, left to The Big Bang Theory on television or Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still. But Drexel student Yilin Yang is intimately involved with theoretical mathematics

On February 26, 2015 at 6:00 PM the Wagner Free Institute of Science will host Aquatic Underdogs: How Freshwater Mussels Can Help Save our Great Waters, an illustrated presentation by Danielle Kreeger, PhD, BEES Research Associate Professor and Science Director for the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.

From energy policy to honeybee health, climate change to disaster preparedness, Drexel social scientists are bringing important new perspectives to the nation's greatest environmental challenges. Tim Hyland writes about the research of Drexel social scientists, including STS professors Chloe Silverman and Gwen Ottinger.

The discovery and naming of Dreadnoughtus schrani, a 65-ton, supermassive sauropod dinosaur that lived 77 million years ago, was highlighted in the 2014 Drexel University President's Report. Associate Professor Ken Lavocara, PhD, who discovered the dinosaur in Patagonia back in 2005

The creation of the Drexel PSC was chosen as one of 14 stories highlighted in the 2014 Drexel University President's Report. Dr. Schwartz describes the benefits of training Drexel's clinical psychology doctoral students at the PSC, how it is an addition that strengthens an already top-notch training program, and how it is a benefit to the community at large.

The Shifting Energy Cultures Series is part of a multi-disciplinary research project funded by the Institute for Energy and the Environment that explores the social ordering of choices, problems and practices that shape “energy cultures” in campus environments. We will use Drexel’s “smart grid” building system as a case study and living lab.

The International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T²M) and the Cosmobilities Network invite proposals for panels and papers to be presented at their first joint conference. The conference will be hosted by the Dipartimento di Lettere e Beni Culturali of the Second University of Naples

Rickie Miglin, a senior undergrad and member of our research lab, was recently awarded a 2015 Emerging Scholar Fellowship by the Scattergood Foundation Active Minds Program, based in part on the senior thesis she is conducting under my supervision.

Arthur M. Nezu, Ph.D., D.H.L. (Hon.), ABPP, Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Editor, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, will be the 2015 recipient of the Florence Halpern Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Clinical Psychology.

Alison Kenner, PhD, and Mimi Sheller, PhD collaborate with professors from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for the Shifting Energy Cultures lectures series, funded by the A. J. Drexel Institute for Energy & the Environment

This past fall, Drexel researchers from the Center for Science, Technology, and Society, and the School of Public Health, in collaboration with the Clean Air Council, conducted a community survey that investigated how River Ward residents perceive environmental conditions in their neighborhood, how residents obtain information about hazards as well as community projects, and what they thought were priority issues for the River Wards district. The study, “Mapping Perceptions of Environmental Health Risks,” was funded by Drexel’s Social Science Council, which solicited applications for interdisciplinary projects that paired social scientists with faculty from other disciplines.

A Drexel-led team's complementary analyses of population genetics, geographical distribution and habitat use paint a new picture of the evolutionary past and potentially bleak future of the Nigeria-Cameroon Chimpanzee, already the most endangered chimp subspecies.

As the dust settles after the chaos of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the holiday shopping season, it’s the perfect time to take a closer look at America’s consumer culture, including ‘affluenza,’ the epidemic of overconsumption. In a new course, called “Studying Consumerism,” offered by the Department of Communication in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences, students—and a limited number of alumni and members of the general public—can do just that. The winter term course, which runs from Jan. 5 – March 21, will provide students with a broad overview of critical, historical and practical issues pertaining to consumerism as well as branding and marketing.

Less than a year ago, Mollie Snyder "knew basically nothing about" China. But since starting her co-op at a bilingual Chinese magazine in September, she's been elevated from intern to editor, mingled with celebrities and attended high-end fashion shows.

In most year-in-review posts, the Drexel News Blog takes the opportunity to reflect on experiences and stories, both local and global, that they took note of over the past 12 months. But this one is about new finds that you might not have heard about - and it's remarkable how unremarked such things can be. Every month of every year, scientists continue to add pages to the catalog of life on Earth, discovering and documenting new species from the swimming to the squirmy to the photosynthetic and microscopically beautiful.

David Goldberg, PhD, a professor of physics and associate dean for science research and graduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences, was featured in stories in the Philadelphia Inquirer and on KYW Newsradio (1060-AM) on Jan. 3 for delivering the keynote address at the Philadelphia Futures conference for high school students.